Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-06-28

Seashore," red aloud 10 them through
out the working day. Toftburn, on or
binary suAmer days, Is lively enough.
But who shall do justice to its feverish
liveliness, its delirious gayety, on bank
holiday! How shall ] attempt to describe
a first Monday in August at that attrac-
tive place, when every half hourly train
from London discharged Its hundreds into
the already crowded streets. was in
but poor spirits that day, it Is true; but
found some consolation In watching the
holiday pranks Of my kind. From the
ton of the west cliff. Is l leaned over the
rail gloomily observant, the whole pano-
rama Of seething Life was below me,
under a blazing August sun.
..Alas! alas, my brothers," I said;
THE happiness you seek 90 painfully doet
not exist How much wiser TO lean here
on this railing, as I do. quietly. with your
pulse normal, and that life is q
mournful puzzle scarce worth the solv'
ing!"
Il is pleasant is it mott TO stand alooi
from the crowd, q Ia Childe Harold, and
muse upon their folly thusl
/ was in this frame Of mind when my
last evening in Tottburn arrived. l had
been in a very bad temper all day. In
the morning l had been entrapped into an
expedition to Toftburn glen, three miles
away, with the Ridgways. We had gone
in a ~wagonette, with some friends OF
theirs recently come down to Toftburn.
q had supposed the Reds would be going
when l accepted the invitation
In exploring the glen, Miss hdgway
talked of nothing but the fauna and
fora of the neighborhood." Miss Lottie
would linger behind the rest of the party
and look sentimental. And DIR. Ridgway
got In a passion at lunch, and let the girls
have it straight, because, in taking an
enormous bite of his first sandwich, he
found to his sorrow that it had q triple
share of mustard.
Even the Intellectual Eliza shook in her
shoes at the wrath in the wears red face
and streaming eyes.
Returned from this unsought jaunt, ]
strolled along the beach. 1t was a warm
August evening. The sun had set, but
the western sea beneath which he had
dipped his burning face in hopes to cool
it, was still all crimson; the eastern sea
was cold and silver gray, flowing onward,
onward to me as / stood and watched it.
a few bars of grey cloud lying above its
horizon. The sands were almost deserted.
The children and their nurses who formed
the chief beach population. were gone
away. The pier. the parade, and the
aquarium claimed all the evening world
of Toftburn.
Round me were the sand heaps, towers,
and castles which the children had reared
no busily during the day, doomed to be
obliterated by the evening tide. Seated
at the foot of the cliff, in a quie,
spot, where the cliffs ran out at either
side and cut me off from all thu
world, / gave way 10 melancholy,
Suddenly, round the projecting cliffs t.
my right, q tall, slim figure in white ap'
peared and strolled slowly along the sands
by the margin Of the sea, looking Out
over the silvery expanse of water-my
beautiful, my beloved, my Ellie, who, ]
feared, was never TO be mine! Far out
in the shallow water / was also aware OF
the prodigy, c~ondescending to bend his
mighty soul to 20 childish and human a
sport as wsding and fishing with q large
net for possible marine monsters.
II will not 60 to her." ! said; II will
leave her in peace. She does not guess
what loving eyes IN watching her.
Darling, ! only tease you with my pres
ence. The love you did not want and
never guessed at shall not be confessed to
you-you would only be distressed. But
II ! live a century I shall never live il
down. Oh, my little girl! il you could
have cared for me!-if i might ever
have dared 10 tell you all you are to mel
The slim white figure strolled along by
the margin of the evening sea.
Once she stood looking out TO tn,
horizon, and then traced idly with tn
point of her closed sunshade on tia sand
The prodigy was tagging behind, absorbet
in his net fishing. and she was waiting
for him. all unconscious of the gaze fol
lowing her every movement 30 intensely,
Her back was to me. And now she
was bending down, tracing with more
method in the sand-tracing letters there,
it would seem. ! was too far off ever
to guess at what she was writing,
but why did a sudden thrill
run through me O. I watched
that sunshade's point working 80 busilyI
Why did ! rise, my recent resolve for
gotten, and with heart throbbing and eye,
staring-in fact, feeling like nothing but
a great humping heart and a great star
ing eye-approach silently, even stealthily,
the spot where she stood2
She had completed it, whatever il wa,
she had written. She was looking AZ II
now. Quickl quick! a little foot wal
already extended to erase it! Silently,
~stealthily, still unguessed at, / covered thu
few yards that were all now intervening
between us. Il was a name she hac
written there-a Christian name and sur
name. Whose? oh, whose? She WA still
looking at them, thinking herself in per
feet solitude. And now l had reachet
her. ! looked over her shoulder. Ant
the name in the sand-oh, joy! Joy! JOY
it was mine!
Ten minutes later / am walking alons
the beach with my darling on my arm
and she knows I have loved her since firt
I met her. and I know that she was only
shy, not cold; and that her dear heart |
given me in exchange for my own.
Twilight is falling on Toftburn sea
The prodigy is busy out in the shadows
oblivious Of us. The lights are com
ing out on the pier. the band Is fit
fully audible. A gay crowd II pourinl
on to find an evenings amusement. w
will not nm amop1 thom INV ourn awpot